Who’s Law is it?

While at Boskone last weekend, one of the Sunday panels I went to was “Top 10 Tips for the Aspiring Author” and two members of the five person panel were John Scalzi and Patrick Nielsen Hayden. It was a good time, and some good advice was given, and sometime during the conversation Patrick had scratched something onto a notepad. John saw it, pointed and nodded, and they chuckled for a moment as the discussion went on around them. Later, as the hour was drawing to an end, John piped up, “I’d like Patrick to talk about this thing he’s written down.” Which the moderator then seconded.

“Wheaton’s Law… Don’t be a dick,” he said, and then they elaborated a little bit.

Somewhere in the row behind me, of to the left, I heard someone gasp then mutter, “Joss Wheadon?” The tome and way the person said it stuck me like they were huge Wheadon fans that thought they knew everything that he had done and said and were marveled that they had never heard this tidbit before.